As planning for the next generation of skyscrapers gets underway, what can we expect from the high-rises of the future? We know that many of these buildings under construction are currently far greener and taller than any to date, with one set to comfortably become the tallest in the world. However, along with these impressive structures comes a recurring curse that follows the super towers’ construction.

The smallest of the new skyscrapers will be the Baoneng Shenyang Global Financial Center in South Korea which will become the ninth tallest in the world. Costing around $1.5 billion, it will feature 114 floors, 34 of which will be offices, a five star hotel and an exclusive club at the top of the tower.

Puncturing the 2,000ft marker will be Rama IX Super Tower of Bangkok in Thailand, which will be the sixth tallest tower in the world. With a cost of $620 million to build, it will have 125 floors which include office space, a shopping centre, a six star hotel and restaurants. The skyscraper will partially be powered with solar panels and will use clad insulated glass.

The third new skyscraper will be Merdeka PNB 118 in Kuala Lumpur, which will become the fourth tallest tower in the world once built, whilst the Wuhan Greenland Center in China will be the fourth tallest. Thornton Tomasetti provided the structural engineering services to the latter, which will feature an energy generating ventilation system that captures exhaust air to use to heat the building and a greywater recovery system that takes used water from the hotel to use in the skyscraper’s evaporative cooling system.

Last but not least will be the highly anticipated Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, to which Thornton Tomasetti is also providing structural engineering services. The future tallest building will be constructed in a Jeddah Economic City amounting to $20 billion. The skyscraper will feature a rotating sky terrace and has been constructed so the facades align from northwest to northeast, reducing the overall solar load.

The curse? History has shown that after a major skyscraper is built, the stock market crashes. The Asian financial crisis followed the completion of the Petronas towers, the Taipei tower’s construction was followed by the dot-com bubble, and the financial crisis of 2007-2009 broke as the Burj Khalifa was being built. Hopefully another financial crisis is not on its way.